Roots of Creation warms up holiday crowd in Boston

Monday

Dec 25, 2017 at 12:01 AM

The weather outside was, if not exactly frightful, miserable enough, but inside Brighton Music Hall in Boston Saturday night the music and the vibes were all warm and welcoming, as New Hampshire's Roots of Creation turned in a steamy 80-minute show before about 150 fans of all ages. Roots of Creation began in 1999 in […]

jaymiller

Roots of Creation, the reggae/rock/funk band from New Hampshire, has new album due next month, “Grateful Dub,” consisting of reggae versions of Grateful Dead tunes

The weather outside was, if not exactly frightful, miserable enough, but inside Brighton Music Hall in Boston Saturday night the music and the vibes were all warm and welcoming, as New Hampshire's Roots of Creation turned in a steamy 80-minute show before about 150 fans of all ages.

Roots of Creation began in 1999 in the Keene, New Hampshire area, and has been performing all around New England, and the rest of the country too, ever since. The band first came together when most were students at Franklin Pierce College, with a shared love of reggae and rock, and bands like Sublime, The Wailers, Reel Big Fish, Michael Franti and Spearhead, and Slightly Stoopid. Over the course of the past 15 years or so, they've been able to share the stage with most of those performers, as opening acts, and they've become nationally known in both the reggae and jamband scenes.

Back in 2016, Roots of Creation released their album “Livin' Free,” which included 18 cuts, and also was available in an optional three-CD set which contained three separate versions of 14 of those songs–one with the full band, one in an acoustic version, and one in a dub re-mix. The band is currently readying their next album for release, and it's another ambitious project, as “Grateful Dub” will consist of reggae renditions of Grateful Dead songs.

The Roots of Creation lineup includes singer/songwriter/guitarist Brett Wilson, drummer Mike Chadinha, Tal Pearson on keyboards, Andrew Riordan on saxophone, and Nick Minicucci–who grew up in Mansfield and Norton–on bass. For Saturday's show, Chadinha was sidelined by surgery, so Alex Brando filled in capably on drums.

Saturday's show, an evening called “Holiday R.O.C.” also included South Shore funkmasters The Aldous Collins Band opening, and an ad hoc super trio of Boston reggae performer Van Gordon Martin, Jonathan Paul of Slightly Stupid, and Tommy B. from the reggae band John Brown's Body. Martin and/or Paul spent much of the final set sitting in with Roots of Creation, making for some extended jams that raised the heat quotient without ever seeming to meander or go too long.

The first Roots of Creation song Saturday night was definitely reggae, but reggae with a surging funk foundation, in a number apparently called “Sex on the Mountain.” The tempo slowed to ballad mode, with stops and starts and spacey clavinet sounds from the keyboards for “Don't Stop,” which accelerated into a brisk march and then slowed back down again in an impressive arrangement. There was an exaggerated creeper beat underpinning “When We Wake Up,” which similarly burst into a rousing charge before shifting back down again–more proof that this band can pivot and change direction like a well-oiled machine.

Another ballad-type tune was a ten-minute long gem or soaring melody, and “Is It You?” went from waves of surreal synthesizer sounds to a Memphis-style r&b with a sizzling organ solo to Wilson's own rock guitar. Martin and Paul were both onstage with the band and adding their own heat to the cover of “Fire on the Mountain,” turned into a slinky reggae piece. The forthcoming record was aptly previewed with the reggae take on the Grateful Dead's “Shakedown Street,” with Pearson on melodica, and judging from the dance floor, the new record will be popular. That song morphed into a long jam that sifted through a jazzy strut, took a swerve for a visceral tenor sax solo, and then ended up in a re-working of the Dead's “West L.A. Fade Away” to end the regular set.

For their first encore Roots of Creation explored the deep reggae groove of their own “Struggle,” a rousing and wall-shaking low end foundation making it inescapable. Then they uncorked a funky and fiery rendition of Otis Redding's “That's How Strong My Love Is,” which seemingly ended the night in a blaze. But when the crowd kept chanting their name and demanding more, Roots of Creation came back for a second encore, in a searingly propulsive “Get Some Lovin' Started” that seemed to pick right up where that Redding song had left off.

Roots of Creation next plays in the area on January 5 when they join Badfish (the Sublime tribute band) at The Strand Theater in Providence. (That's aka Lupo's, but going forward Rich Lupo is concentrating more on his Met Cafe, so his partners are taking over operation of the club, which had been located in the Strand Theater for the past decade or so anyway, hence the name change.)